Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t understand why Mercedes had to reduce their pace much more than their rivals during the Austrian Grand Prix.
The world championship leader said he had to ‘lift and coast’ for more than 400 metres per lap at times around the 4.3 kilometre Red Bull Ring.“I’m not really sure why we had the issue we had today and the others didn’t,” said Hamilton. “They didn’t have to do any lift-and-coasting and just pushed the whole way which is how Formula 1 should be.”
Hamilton never got close to another car to attempt a pass and lost fourth place to Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages of the race. “It’s a good track for overtaking here,” he said, “unfortunately we weren’t in that position to be able to do so.”
There was “no way” he could join the fight for victory, said Hamilton. “We were lift-and-coasting 400-plus [metres] per lap. We were a long way down.
“I think if we didn’t have to do that we would have pace, I think. But unfortunately that was just the way it was. So you could never get close to anyone.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said yesterday the combination of high temperature and altitude at the race compromised Mercedes’ cooling. Hamilton said he has “no idea” whether that will be a problem in other races this year.
“I don’t think it’ll be in a lot of places but I’m sure there’ll be at least another one, maybe like Mexico or something,” he said.
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Steven Robertson (@emu55)
30th June 2019, 17:42
It’s probably a good thing, the fact Ferrari and Red Bull cars only work better in freak excessive heat shows their design flaws. You can’t win championships with cars that work in such a narrow window.
Gabriel (@rethla)
30th June 2019, 17:46
Or maybe they work the same but Mercedes dont because its outside their narrow window?
DAllein (@)
30th June 2019, 17:54
Considering it was a single race this year… the probability of Mercedes having narrow window, opposed to Ferrari and RBR… is approaching zero.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
30th June 2019, 17:58
Bravo to Ferrari and Red Bull for designing cars that operate better than Mercedes in conditions that only occur in less than 20% of the season’s races. After all the whining about Merc dominance last week we finally found the answer to “equalizing” Merc, only race on super hot circuits. I see races only in the Middle East.
Gabriel (@rethla)
30th June 2019, 18:08
@dallein
Considering there are zero races where Honda and Ferrari have had to lift and coast an entire race i would say its as far from zero as can be.
koddamn (@gufdamm)
30th June 2019, 20:22
The sense you’re making in this argument is close to zero.
Dave (@davewillisporter)
30th June 2019, 18:07
In fact the extreme temps negate the advantage Merc has with tire operating windows. When the tires are outside their normal operating window, Merc, Redbull and Ferrari are evenly matched. For years Merc’s achilles heel has been cooling. Hamilton said they could match the pace of the others but couldn’t use the pace because of overheating engine temps. You put a set of WEC Michelin type tires on Red Bull, Ferrari and Merc it would be a very interesting championship. Their chassis / engine combos are very close. It’s just the tires! (Oh and Merc prefers shade!)
MacLeod (@macleod)
30th June 2019, 19:25
It could be the height which Mercedes have problems with if so Mexico will be bad also for Mercedes.
Les air means less cooling, smaller turbo means higher RPM but less power but more heat. Renault has a really big Turbo and see McLaren is doing very well.
Honda just installed a new Turbo helped by Honda jetengine dep. So if Reb Bull rules Mexico it’s the size of the turbo.
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
1st July 2019, 16:15
What a load of nonsense, Merc and Ferrari have much bigger turbos than the rest, Renault factory team was nowhere. It had nothing to do with turbo size, and everything to do with engine cooling efficiency. Merc had a sidepod cooling “upgrade” for Austria, specifically visible near the exit next to the halo, and either they don’t understand it or it just plain doesn’t work. Merc sidepods have been behind Ferrari since 2017 and it is finally coming back to haunt them.
DAllein (@)
30th June 2019, 17:47
While I don’t have anything against Ferrari or RBR winning, I can’t shake the feeling Mercedes might go as extreme as to produce distinct “packages” for Brazil and Mexico to obliterate everyone there…
Though I hope they stick to current version and just accept that some wild races might be out of reach for them.
Anyway, compared to double-DNF last year, 3rd and 5th is not that bad, especially with enormous lead they have.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
30th June 2019, 17:49
I’m going to stick with my theory that this latest engine up-grade has issues.
It wont be a problem in the long run as Team Mercedes has both the expertise and the cash to sort it out, but they may have to mix with the lower orders for a few races.
DAllein (@)
30th June 2019, 17:55
There’s very little to back this theory up
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
30th June 2019, 18:06
Well Lances engine going up like it had been hit by napalm and constant hydraulic repairs to both Lewis and Vals engines might give me bit of support?
It’s only an idea.
Dave (@davewillisporter)
30th June 2019, 18:12
@Nulla Pax These are glitches and niggles. Not fundamental design flaws. The only fundamental flaw of the Merc is that it cannot handle sky rocketing temps. Has been for years and I must admit, for such a proficient outfit, I am surprised this is still an issue.
Gabriel (@rethla)
30th June 2019, 18:28
@davewillisporter It isnt an issue they got 5 WCCs.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
30th June 2019, 18:30
From Mercs perspective they will indeed by just “glitches and niggles” and certainly not anything to panic about.
From a spectators view though I hope that they take a few (several would be better) races to sort things out before going on to dominate the season as they surely will.
I enjoy Lewis playing mind games over the radio.
It would be even more entertaining to hear him asking Peter why bits of his own engine just went past him!
poneyroux
30th June 2019, 18:02
I think this is more related to a combination of heat and altitude.
This car seems to have a problem with that : last year in Austria, the pace wasn’t as good as previous races and the engines broke. For the last two races in Mexico, which is a track located at a very high altitude, their pace were atrocious.
And this may also explain why they have constant issues of pace in Singapore (but don’t quote me on this -why would you anyway)
grat
1st July 2019, 1:53
Well, that would explain the Williams and Racing Point cars overheating.
…. wait, what?
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
30th June 2019, 17:53
Very weird, even after merc used Bottas as bait, Lewis was still lifting and coasting, on hammer time! Judging by how badly affected they were, this race was theirs.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
30th June 2019, 18:16
Yeah, ”funny” how now almost nobody sees how Mercedes tried to screw up BOT’s strategy in order to get HAM ahead of him! It’s always just Ferrari screwing up… any other driver they have… to help VET. Even when it’s not the case.
Dave (@davewillisporter)
30th June 2019, 18:21
“Eyes Rolling!”
Merc reacted to Ferrari stop with Bottas to protect his position. They then split strategy with Hamilton running long to cover any late race deg. It’s just strategy FFS! Not a plan to sabotage! Have you ever tried a game of strategy???? Conspiracy BS. Frowny face!
MG1982 (@mg1982)
1st July 2019, 6:03
They tried to protect BOT although he was +4sec ahead of VET, but not HAM who was only +2sec?!? Come on, man, this is dumb! The 1st to get the undercut would have been HAM, not BOT. Then, BOT came 1st to the pits, not VET so, they did not respond to Ferrari. Also, BOT was on Mediums… and they questioned Ferrari’s strategy to start on Softs, but in the end they stopped at the same time?! So, all of this was just BS from Mercedes and they actually tried from the start to emulate Ferraris strategy?! Yet again, HAM stayed 10 more laps on the track compared to BOT. Come on, this is fishy to the core. We all know what would have been said if instead of BOT and HAM it was LEC and VET!
Gav
30th June 2019, 20:10
You don’t have a clue what you are talking about do you?
When BOT pitted, and was delayed by VET stopping (which I’m sure you probably think was deliberate), he was easily matching Hamilton’s times on new tyres (I know, I followed the lap times on the app). Merc only went long because Hamilton was happy with the tyres, and owing to Vettel’s botched stop, had some time in hand to play with.
Follow another sport mate, seeing you cry on here about Merc every single article is cringey. You’re nearly 40 for god’s sake. No doubt I’ll have to read your dross on Motorsport Magazine site as well tomorrow.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
1st July 2019, 6:28
…or you could follow another site! Cut this ad hominem BS specific to undeveloped people. Stick to the problem.
Gav
1st July 2019, 8:34
The only problem is you spouting nonsense.
Grow up.
AMG44 (@amg44)
30th June 2019, 18:06
Mercedes had massive cooling issues as they opened up the car quite a lot which doesn’t help the aero and still they had to lift and coast to save the engine. Its good for the championship that the Mercedes car also have weak points.
BTW is it normal in Austria or that part of Europe to be so hot? Before the race teams had to cover the cars with a tent. Never seen that before.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
30th June 2019, 18:10
Not totally unknown but certainly not normal.
Definitely not what we usually get across Europe I would say … as I sit here in the grim North of England … sweating in my underpants …. no … not really usual weather!
poneyroux
30th June 2019, 18:10
There is a heat wave happening these days in Western Europe, explaining the unusual temperatures in Austria.
Dave (@davewillisporter)
30th June 2019, 18:16
Sahara winds are cooking Europe ATM! It was a good 10 – 15 deg C hotter than is average for that track. Jet stream is behaving erratically and affecting normal weather systems. That’s what happens when the arctic warms up!
Gabriel (@rethla)
30th June 2019, 18:31
@amg44
It is hot for Spielberg in Austria but its not that very hot for an F1 race. It was basicly Australia temperatures this weekend. Mercedes problems isnt down to the temperature.
BasCB (@bascb)
30th June 2019, 21:15
I understand that its the combination of lower air density (i.e. higher altitude) and hot weather that makes them suffer @rethla.
Same thing happened last year in Mexico, and could well be the case in Mexico again.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th June 2019, 19:53
Continental Europe, and Austria too can get warm, but today in Berlin my wife told me it was 37 degrees (tuesday we had 38C), her home town of Braunschweig had 36C; this last week a 70 year old German heat record was broken, and France experienced over 45C temps quite widely; similar picture in many countries – hasn’t been the norm until now, though I fear it might become so (guess time for Mercedes to start thinking about that ;-)
BasCB (@bascb)
30th June 2019, 21:14
Yeah, we had 37 degrees (or maybe it was up to 38) here too (Czech Republic, about 280 km north of Spielberg) middle of the week, held on until thursday, friday was a tad cooler, but saturday and today it was back up there again. Tomorrow will be too, although we have some thunderstorms coming in to (hopefully) cool us off a bit for 2-3 days @bosyber, @rethla, @amg44.
This year looks like being the new highest temperatures measured ever. And the 5th year in a row of that. Certainly not used to be normal, but who knows what is coming in the next decades.
Ju88sy (@)
30th June 2019, 19:09
@amg44 I am assuming you are a long way from Europe. The continent is currently under a ‘Saharan’ weather bubble..